


One Sleeved Jacket

by Signel_chan



Category: Dangan Ronpa - All Media Types, New Dangan Ronpa V3: Everyone's New Semester of Killing
Genre: Clubbing, Gambling, M/M, Vacation, local pianist invites her best friends on a trip with her
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-18
Updated: 2020-05-18
Packaged: 2021-03-03 03:42:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 9,035
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24248254
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Signel_chan/pseuds/Signel_chan
Summary: Kaito puts Shuichi in charge of his jacket for a few minutes and, naturally, disaster strikes at the beginning of what should be a week of mindless fun in a new city. The jacket's demise ends up being the downfall for them on many, many levels.Saimota Week 2020 Fic
Relationships: Momota Kaito/Saihara Shuichi
Comments: 2
Kudos: 27





	One Sleeved Jacket

The lobby of the resort was bustling with people rushing to and fro, some with suitcases and others holding the hands of children pushing to get somewhere less crowded. Shuichi gripped the handle of his bag a bit tighter and made sure to sidle up to the two people he was with, just to make sure he didn’t get separated in such an unfamiliar place. That plan lasted all of five seconds, when he felt one of the shoulders he was rubbing against fall behind, and he stopped to look and see what had distracted Kaito in the first place.

“Do you think you can do me a favor and take my stuff to the room for me?” Kaito asked, looking between Shuichi’s confused face and the rows of bright casino machines that he’d spotted. “I promise I won’t blow through all the money I brought, that’s gotta last me all week and I can’t just keep getting more.”

“Uh, sure,” he replied, watching Kaito walk towards him, drop his own bag on top of the rolling suitcase, and give a fond wave before nearly colliding into some middle-aged women as he ran towards the machines. Once he was out of sight Shuichi turned back around to see Kaede stopped a few steps ahead of him, looking completely amused at how they’d managed to lose someone already. “Sorry about that, I guess we forgot about his insistence on gambling as much as he could.”

Shrugging as she bounced her long, blonde hair off of her shoulders, Kaede didn’t seem too bothered by what she’d seen. “It’s no big deal, at least one of us is going to have a good time playing and losing all their money. I’m still super glad the two of you could come with me, I would’ve hated for this trip to be only me here for a week.” As she spoke she continued walking towards the front desk, where they’d need to check in to their room, something she’d had set up for them. “I know Rantaro wanted to come but you know him, always getting wrapped up in other things right when I need him most.”

“This does seem like the sort of place he’d enjoy exploring,” Shuichi agreed, thinking about how many times he’d gotten lost with Kaede’s boyfriend in various places as they were just trying to find their way somewhere in particular. “But of course we were still coming, you invited us and we could use a trip every once in a while to get away from real life. A week in a new city will be good for all of us.”

“That’s totally right, Shuichi! We’re going to come away from this super broke, but also better friends than we were when we showed up!” Even though she was one person carrying only her own belongings, Kaede’s suitcase dwarfed the one Shuichi was pulling, even with its added luggage, and yet she didn’t seem like she cared to dress like she needed all the space—she was wearing cutoffs that were just a hair too tight on her thighs, and a tank-top that could barely keep her chest restrained as she was nearly skipping along through the lobby. He couldn’t help but watch her carefully, knowing that seedy people in such a city would love to prey on her, but he also knew that his presence, dressed like a man who’d never seen much in the way of sunlight with his long pants and thick shoes, would deter anyone who meant harm to her.

After all, what Kaede _didn’t_ say meant more than what she did, and when she said she wanted him and Kaito there so she wouldn’t be alone, she meant that she wanted them around so she wouldn’t be an easy target for someone. But she walked with such confidence that worrying about her too much was worthless, and Shuichi knew that he needed to relax or else he’d spend the whole week in paradise stressing himself out. They had to wait in a long line to get up to the desk, time spent talking about what they’d packed; it turned out that most of the room in her suitcase was reserved for souvenirs and things she’d take home to remember her trip, because she didn’t pack anything that wasn’t meant to be worn out in direct sunlight, while he’d banked on using the same two pairs of pants and selection of dark t-shirts for the entire trip. As for Kaito, neither of them were really sure what was in his duffel bag, but if he’d made sure that his jacket was laying on top of it, fastened through the handles to not get lost, there was a chance he’d been ill-prepared for the weather as well.

When they got to the desk and Kaede gave her name, the attendant gave her a quick look before nodding, explaining that they’d heard about the talented pianist who was going to be spending time at their resort and that they were happy to provide her with excellent service. “Two queen beds though, miss Akamatsu?” the attendant asked after pulling up the reservation and looking at the pair at the counter. “Wouldn’t it be worth your time to only have one? It would be a higher-class room if you’d—”

“Shuichi’s not my boyfriend,” she cut in, placing her hands on the desk to use them for keeping herself steady as she leaned over in an intimidation tactic. “One bed’s for me and the other is for him and _his_ boyfriend. Is that going to be a problem?”

“N-not at all, ma’am.”

Chuckling to himself about how silly it had been to be worried about Kaede’s safety when she wasn’t afraid to stare down an employee who’d slighted her like that, Shuichi watched the rest of the exchange go peacefully and soon enough they were walking away with three room keys, one for each of them. “I’ll let Kaito know which room we’re in when we get up to it,” he said, taking both his key and Kaito’s from Kaede’s outstretched hand. “He’ll probably be ready to come up by then, so it’ll work out.”

“Well, uh, fourteenth floor, I’m gonna guess we’ll be taking the elevator up.” Reading the slip that had come with checking in to the room, Kaede glanced towards the hub of the elevators, all of which looked to be jam-packed every time they opened. “We’ll have to hope that we aren’t still trying to get up there by the time he’s ready to join us, or else this might get pretty awkward.”

It would have been better for them to have Kaito with them on their journey up to their floor, they quickly realized. Getting into an elevator with enough room for them both and their bags was difficult, and after several had filled and gone on their way they were able to enter and squeeze in right inside the door, barely enough room to exhale from a deep breath without hitting someone. As the door closed on everyone crammed inside, Shuichi tried not to think too much about everything that could go wrong in that moment, but as they began rising and they all heard a loud ripping noise, he felt like they’d just signed away their lives.

The noise wasn’t mechanical, though, and as they went through the floors and people were able to get off the elevator and make things less crowded they didn’t hear the offending sound again, which was peaceful enough. Once they were on the fourteenth floor and out of the still-relatively full elevator they found the space to move and breathe and act like they hadn’t just been the equivalent of human sardines, and they were both cheerful as they made their way to the room. As Kaede opened the door, Shuichi went to grab his phone out of the front pocket of his suitcase to send Kaito a message, but what he saw before he even got to it explained the noise without explaining anything at all.

“He is going to _murder_ me when he gets up here,” he said, without context, and Kaede couldn’t help but laugh at how absurd the statement was, but her laughter disappeared when he’d properly explained himself. “That rip we heard in the elevator, that was his _jacket_.”

“His…jacket? Are you sure?” Just as she got the door open and stuck her sandal-clad foot in it to keep it from closing, Kaede looked behind her to see Shuichi holding up his boyfriend’s favorite purple jacket, the right sleeve torn cleanly off at the shoulder. “Oh geez, that’s not something we can exactly fix…”

Feeling his hands tighten on the fabric of the jacket, trying to make them into fists in his frustration, Shuichi was attempting not to lose control of his emotions as he worked through what he was certain was going to happen. “He’s going to get up here and see it and blame me, which I mean, it is my fault but I didn’t mean to do it, and he’s going to hate me for it for the rest of my life. Kaede, can I sleep in your bed with you, since you know he’s not going to want to share with me after this?”

“Don’t jump to such bad conclusions, I promise it’ll be okay! It’s just a jacket, he’s not going to hate you for something bad happening to it.” Even though she sounded confident in her words, Kaede knew that she was only speaking of the best-case scenario in their situation, because she wasn’t actually sure how Kaito was going to react to finding his jacket in such a sorry state. “And you know what? Even if he gets upset, he’s not going to blame you. I think he loves you a _bit_ too much to hate you for it.”

“Thanks, but you really don’t understand how much this jacket means to Kaito if you think he’s going to accept that I ruined it.” Tears were forming in the corners of Shuichi’s eyes, catching on his eyelashes and falling when he blinked. “I can’t let him know that I did this, but there’s no way I can fix it and there’s definitely no way that we can get him a new one around here, we’re completely screwed right now!”

She sighed, wanting to try and get him out of his negative mindset but knowing that he was going to fight tooth and nail to prove to her that he knew how his boyfriend would react to the news his jacket had gotten ruined. “If that’s what you want to think, then I’m not going to tell you to think otherwise,” she said, pushing the door open fully and motioning for him to come inside before he made too much of a scene in the hallway. “I’ll tell Kaito where we are and have him come up when he’s ready, and you can think about how you’re going to tell him about his jacket while we wait.”

Shuichi’s feet were like lead blocks as he dragged himself inside the hotel room, finding it to be rather spacious for being in a crowded resort building. If he wasn’t so upset he wouldn’t certainly enjoyed the sights of the large beds, the wide-screen television on the wall, and the actual room to move around freely. But because he was distracted by his failure to protect Kaito’s most valuable possession, all he could bring himself to do was flop down on the bed closer to the window, throw the jacket over his face, and lose himself in thoughts about how he was going to break the news to Kaito.

Meanwhile, Kaede had thrown her suitcase on what seemed to be her bed, grabbed her phone out of her small purse she was carrying with her, and shot Kaito a message with their floor and room number, as well as the direction to knock when he got up there. She glanced to Shuichi and his slightly overdramatic position a couple times as she rifled through the things she’d packed with her, grabbing all of her toiletries and taking them to where they belonged before pulling out a couple outfits that were on hangers and walked them to the tiny closet they were given to use. “I’m sure it will be fine,” she assured Shuichi, admiring the clothes she was hanging for a second before looking back at him and seeing that he hadn’t moved even a centimeter. “Besides, if Kaito wants to get upset over the jacket, then he’s going to miss out on all the fun we get to have while we’re here.”

Mumbling something that wasn’t anywhere close to real words, Shuichi ended up pulling the jacket off of his face to see Kaede standing at her suitcase once again, going through the rest of the clothes she’d packed. “What kinds of fun are you thinking we’re going to have, besides him losing all our money on gambling and spending time up here?” he asked, trying to follow her in seeing the brighter side of things.

“Well…I have free admission to a couple clubs, with up to three guests, as part of being here, so I was thinking we could do that.” She could see the immediate apprehension in Shuichi’s eyes, and it was hard to keep herself from laughing at how he looked like she’d just told him she’d injured a treasured pet. “Don’t worry, I made sure that Kaito knew about that before he packed his things, so he’s got you covered on clothes to wear. Plus, this place has a really nice pool area and we could spend time out there, catching rays and spending time swimming.”

“Kaede, I really don’t think that any of that sounds like my kind of thing.”

“And that’s okay! There’s also just exploring the town, there’s so much we can do by foot, but I know you know that because you’ve already looked it all up.” Winking at him, Kaede saw him lighten up a little, but he was still clearly distraught about things he had no control over. “We’ll have a good time while we’re here, you’ve just got to be more positive about things!”

He huffed and threw the jacket to the other side of the bed, before kicking himself back to standing off of the plush mattress and blankets. “You’re right, even though I don’t know _how_ this is going to end well for us. He’s going to get up here and—”

The booming knock on the door made both of them jump, but it was Kaede who went to answer it, coming back to the conversation with a despondent-looking Kaito. “Look who finally decided to join us,” she teased, hitting him with her elbow in his ribs. “How much money did you win?”

“I didn’t even get what I put in the machine back,” he replied, letting his shoulders sag. “It must’ve been rigged, I tell ya! Anyway…” Perking right up, Kaito looked around the room, giving it nods of approval until his eyes landed on the jacket on the bed, which had landed with its now-torn sleeve up. “Hey, uh, don’t mean to pry or anything, but what’s up with my jacket there? Something happen to it?”

The way he spoke was oddly calm, and Shuichi hoped that things would stay that way. “Yeah, about that. When we were coming up here, I guess it got stuck in the door of the elevator and it…might have…ripped…” With every word about the jacket’s demise Shuichi’s voice got quieter, and an intense, confused look appeared on Kaito’s face, complete with furrowed brows and dropping jaw. “We didn’t mean for it to happen, but there were so many people and we could barely fit and, well, that’s what happened.”

“I’ve had this thing for years!” Kaito cried, lunging to pick up the jacket to inspect the damage for himself. Sure enough, the right sleeve was cleanly gone, leaving a ripped seam and no other traces of what had once been. “I can’t believe I let ya take care of it for five minutes and you do this to it!” He didn’t sound angry, even if his voice was incredibly intense in tone and volume. “At least it’s the sleeve I didn’t wear, yeah?”

“Oh, I mean, that’s true. You never wore that sleeve.” Was this going more according to Kaede’s expectations than Shuichi’s own, despite him being the one closer with Kaito? How had he misread what was going to happen? “You’re not…mad at me about this, are you?”

Laughing, Kaito flipped the jacket and began putting it on, actually wearing the vest-like sleeve for a change. “How could I ever be mad at you about somethin’ like this, Shuichi? Accidents happen, y’know, and so do sudden fashion changes. Do ya think this still looks good wearing it now?”

“I think it looks fantastic!” Kaede declared, seeing that Shuichi was almost stunned into a silence at how well-received the problem had been. “You should definitely keep wearing it like that, it honestly looks better than you just draping it over your shoulder.”

“Hey, thanks, Kaede!” he replied, giving her a grin before facing his stone-silent boyfriend, who’d just had his entire outlook on things shaken to its core. “What say you, sidekick? Does it look as great as she thinks it does?”

He nodded, not sure if he could talk without his words betraying him and admitting to all of the fears he’d had about the current conversation. Kaito took the nod as a positive sign and removed the jacket, navigating the room to set it on the sole empty hanger the closet had come with before beginning to go through his bag. While he was looking at what he’d packed, Shuichi gave Kaede a look that showed every ounce of his confusion at what had just happened, while she beamed at him, wordlessly letting him know everything had ended up okay, just like she’d thought it would.

Now that the whole issue with the jacket was out of the way, it became time to actually start settling in and enjoying the trip, which meant deciding what they were going to do for the rest of the day. Since only one of them had made use of the gambling already, they chose to go look at what the casino at the resort had to offer as a whole group, and after making sure they looked nice and had everything necessary to prove their ages if asked, they headed back down to the ground level to begin exploring. Shuichi often found himself being the link between Kaede and Kaito, making sure that one of them didn’t end up in any trouble with others and that the other didn’t end up in any trouble with machines. He liked being right in the middle, where he could see everything that the other two were doing as well as what people around them were engaged in, and if he could’ve spent the whole trip in that position he wouldn’t have minded it even slightly.

But things weren’t always going to be so perfect for them, and those disruptions came in the way of pushy guards who didn’t believe they were all old enough to be walking through the casino floor, or people trying to sell scams and assuming that the three of them were _all_ romantically involved, or it was one of the guys with Kaede and the other as a tagalong. She took a lot of pride in shutting down anyone who dared to insinuate that Kaito or Shuichi were her boyfriend, and if the questions ever had happened at a time where there weren’t various slot or table games around, Kaito would have been right there with her, fighting the fight. Usually they had a fourth person with them, who was able to stop the assumptions eve slightly, but with it being just the three the amount of call-outs that they were given in romantic terms felt stifling.

It wasn’t just other people stifling them, because the heat outside the resort doors was just as bad, if not worse. Even as the sun was setting on the town it still felt much warmer than any of them were used to, and Shuichi was the first to regret his decision to stay dressed in his usual style of clothes in such a strange place. He was sweating within moments of stepping outside, and as there were many stretches on their explorations that had them outside on shadowed sidewalks that did _nothing_ for bringing the temperature down, he was downright miserable, but it wasn’t as if either of the others were doing much better. Kaito was naturally warm anyway and struggling to stay cool for long, even in his sleeveless shirt and knee-skimming shorts, and with how beads of sweat were pooling on his face and arms he was clearly not doing so well. On the other hand, it was much harder for them to notice that Kaede was suffering from the heat as well, given how minimal her choice of clothing was, but when she’d look at them and they could see her face bright red from exertion in the warmth they knew she wasn’t doing much better.

“Maybe we should…stay inside somewhere until nighttime,” she suggested as they came up on another resort’s front entrance, her breathing slightly heavy from how warm she was and how far they’d just walked in search of relief. “I’m sure we could get something to eat while we wait around, I’m starting to feel super hungry after all that walking.”

“Oh yeah, food sounds great right now,” Kaito agreed, fanning himself with a hand that was giving him nothing but muscle tiredness. “What do ya think about that idea, Shuichi? You wanna grab a bite and wait for it to get dark?”

Shuichi, having grabbed the front of his shirt to try and keep it from sticking to his skin, nodded eagerly. “If anything, sitting somewhere cool will be nice, so let’s do it. Got any ideas about where we’ll be eating?” That question was met with silence as they went into the resort building, immediately finding pleasure in the chilled air inside, but it wasn’t until they found a building directory that he got an answer: that, of course, was that there was no idea at all. Everywhere listed seemed to be high-class and expensive, but it was a choice of either finding somewhere in there to eat or going back out into the heat to try somewhere else, and because none of them had any interest in being in the heat again they decided to try the most appealing of the options.

For the price, the food should have been much better than it was, but they weren’t going to kick up a fuss when they’d made the choice to go there solely out of their desire not to go back outside for a while. Still, their poor server had to keep running glass after glass of water to their table, because they were all incredibly thirsty and were focused more on rehydrating than actually eating their meals. Having learned that lesson quickly, once they’d finished their meal they went to explore the inside of the sprawling casino-resort they’d found themselves in, finding a similar setup to the one they’d been using initially, albeit with several water bottles they’d bought at a steep markup in their hands.

Stops were made to gamble, stops were made to look through souvenir shops, and stops were made to admire advertisements for concerts and shows they could attend while they were on their trip. “I think I have vouchers for one free show, now that I think about it,” Kaede said after looking at an ad for some high-flying circus adventure. “So maybe we can set up that for one of our days here. Probably not a pool day or a club night, though.”

“You’re really insistent on us going to the club,” Shuichi told her, having heard what she said even though Kaito hadn’t due to his own fixation on a different show’s ad. “I don’t know why you want to force us to do that with you, but I guess it’s your trip.”

“It’s the one good thing about Rantaro not being here, you know he would want to spend all night exploring and not going to something like that. I’m going to make the best of his absence from this trip, damn it!” Smacking her thigh with her water bottle-less hand, Kaede immediately regretted the decision she’d made when she looked down and saw the painful red mark she’d inflicted on herself, while Shuichi stared at it and tried to think up a good excuse for why it was there, since no one would believe the truth.

Lo and behold, when Kaito finally checked back in to the conversation, he was looking right at the red mark on Kaede’s leg and asking what had happened. “Someone tried to lay a hand on her, and she made sure they learned that was a bad idea.” The words fell from Shuichi’s mouth much more naturally than he would’ve expected them to, but Kaito was _not_ the person he’d concocted the lie for and he had to backtrack, properly telling him, “Or, Kaede got super passionate about going to the club and she hit herself over it.”

“Oh yeah, the club! We’re still doin’ that, aren’t we?” Making it clear that he really had been informed of that decision previously, Kaito looked up at Kaede’s smiling face as she nodded to let him know the plans had not changed, and for a moment he seemed thrilled, until—“Aw man, I was gonna wear my jacket to the club when we went, but now that it’s ruined…they’re not gonna let me take that in there, are they?”

“I mean, there’s no harm in trying,” Kaede replied, thinking about the dress codes she’d read about and how the jacket never would’ve been allowed in originally. “As you say, something about the impossible being possible, right?”

“Hell yeah! I’ll make sure I’m neat under it just in case, but I’m definitely gonna try wearing it in when we go!” Slamming his fists together in his passion, Kaito seemed altogether way too excited to get to go to the club, to the point that Shuichi didn’t want to make a comment within earshot about how he was _not_ looking forward to it even slightly. He wasn’t going to allow himself to put a damper on their mood, to rain on their parade, even though he really wished he could do something other than get dragged to some club in an unfamiliar town.

They walked around inside for a while before braving the outdoors once again, the sun having gone down but the world around them having lit up just as bright as it had been before. The air was slightly cooler, but without the bright sun it didn’t feel as miserable as it had, and they were able to walk around outside for longer without suffering for it; that didn’t mean they wanted to stay outside for long, though, given that some of the stranger people came out under the shadow of night and were beginning to make things weird. They ended up in a couple other casinos and explored them, finding it amusing that it didn’t matter what time of day it was, everywhere was bustling and crazy, before they started making their way back to their hotel.

This was just the first night of their week-long vacation, and there was still so much time to do so many other things before they went home, and yet by the time they were in their room they felt completely exhausted. There was barely enough energy between any of them to take showers longer than it took to wash off all the sweat from earlier in the day, but somehow they’d managed to get that done before they were all asleep in the cool breeze of the air conditioner, no blankets really needed.

With morning came the need to find somewhere to eat (since they weren’t somewhere that served a free breakfast), and while Kaede was sorting that out the guys were still in the process of waking up. “I don’t think I can walk around like that again today,” Shuichi confessed, throwing his hands over his eyes to try and force them to stay open. “It was too hot, and too far, and I wasn’t dressed properly for any of it.”

“Didn’t you pack shorts?” Kaito asked him, his voice muffled as he was on his stomach and his face was buried in the pillow. “I told ya that you should’ve done that, it would’ve saved you all sorts of trouble.”

“I don’t have shorts, one, and two, you obviously went and packed club clothes for me so you could’ve snuck some new shorts in too.” Cue Kaito lifting his head to gape at Shuichi, who had to explain that Kaede had informed him of that decision, and that he hadn’t been snooping around in bags that weren’t his own.

“Come on you guys, let’s not argue!” Stepping in as she set her phone down on the end of her bed, which had the sheets thrown all askew from how rough of a sleeper she was, Kaede looked positively energized and ready to take on the day, having gotten ready long before either of the guys had decided they’d wake up. “I’ve got our names on a list at a breakfast place downstairs, we need to hurry before they decide my reservation isn’t good enough for them to keep it. That means get ready for the day, because who knows when we’ll be back up here!”

They groaned in unison, her peppy attitude too much to handle so early in the day, but they followed her directions and were heading out to the elevators within fifteen minutes, her leading the way with determination in her step. The restaurant she’d picked for them to eat at was much nicer than the one they’d dined at the night before, and they came away from breakfast filled better than they had been at dinner. From there it was a matter of figuring out where to go, if they wanted to retread steps or go find somewhere else to explore, and she was leading the way in those discussions as well. Shuichi considered teasing her by asking if she missed having her boyfriend around to lead their explorations, but he stopped himself when he realized he didn’t want to accidentally upset her. They’d had a good start to the day, all things considered, so it would’ve been wrong of him to sabotage everything.

Their choice ended up being to go to new places, and thankfully it wasn’t as warm out before noon as it had been before sunset, so they weren’t struggling as bad that day in their time underneath the morning sun. It felt like they managed to not to as much walking that day as they had the night before, even though it was easier work overall, but they did end up spending a large chunk of time stuck at a section of machines in one casino because Kaito insisted on trying each one in his quest for winning his money back.

When they’d finally gotten to walk away from those, him lamenting all the cash he’d just lost in his futile attempts, they came up on an entrance to a club that had Kaede bouncing where she stood, the messy braid she’d put her hair in flying every which-way. “This is one I’ve got entry for,” she explained, pointing at its sign, “and I was _kinda_ thinking that we should come over here tonight to see what it’s like. Since it’s free, if we don’t have a good time we’re not losing much, if that makes sense.”

“Pretty sure Kaito will end up losing more money getting over here,” Shuichi said, glancing towards his boyfriend as he went up to the dress code sign to read it for himself, most likely to see if the jacket would be allowed. “But you know how I feel about this sort of thing, so it’s really up to the two of you.”

“He’s been up for it since I first mentioned to him, but…” Cupping her mouth to amplify her voice, Kaede shouted, “Kaito! You want to come to this club tonight?” He turned from the sign just long enough to give her a thumbs-up before he was back to reading it, while she looked at Shuichi with a grin. “Guess that means we’ve got our plans for tonight. Now to just figure out what to do before we’ve got to be here, since they don’t open until nine o’clock.”

“That’s only…” Shuichi pulled out his phone to look at the time, which was just before two. “Seven hours. In a town where there doesn’t seem to be a shortage of anything to do. I think we’ll be able to make it work out.”

Kaito came back to them with a solemn expression, shaking his head like he’d just been fed another blow like the one to his wallet. “They say no street clothes allowed, so we might have a problem,” he said, motioning towards Shuichi’s feet, which were still wearing his normal shoes. “I didn’t pack any shoes for either of us that ain’t, well, what we’re wearing right now. Do ya think we can go get something more acceptable?”

“Is that all the problem is?” Kaede asked, before laughing. “I think we know something we can do to pass the time, Shuichi. Let’s find somewhere to do a bit of shopping, shall we?”

There was no shortage of shoe stores across the different resorts, and eventually they found somewhere not charging a small fortune for shoes that would be considered dressier for the two men to buy. By the time they’d gotten those in their possession, over an hour had passed, and they still needed to get back to their room, change into whatever it was they were wearing for the club, eat dinner, and get back over to queue up for when they opened. That sort of time crunch didn’t seem to weigh heavily on two of their minds, but the third was apprehensive that they’d get everything done in an acceptable time, meaning that they’d have to set up again another night.

With Kaede at the helm of decision making, things ended up working out for the best. Sure, they got back to the room and Kaito promptly fell asleep while sitting on the bed, wasting precious time taking a nap instead of starting to get ready. His reason for that choice had been that they’d gone walking outside in the heat again and he was exhausted from it, but after half an hour of snoozing he couldn’t keep it up and was forced to get ready like the other two were. He’d done a decent job at getting clothes for himself and Shuichi to wear, choosing matching style button-down shirts (one purple, one blue) and slacks for each of them, which went nicely with their new shoes, but for as good as they ended up looking, neither of them could really compared to how over-the-top Kaede got for the occasion.

For starters, if she’d been dolled up even half as much during the daytime she would have been suffering through melting makeup, as she had it caked on her eyes to make them stand out even more than normal. It was to the point that looked to be double their normal size, with eyelashes that nearly brushed her eyebrows with how clearly fake they were. Her hair, which _had_ been braided earlier in the day, was brushed out and hanging in waves over her shoulders and down her back, bouncy waves that would undeniably jump with every step she took in her towering heels, shoes that it seemed miraculous she could stand in. “Uh, are you sure you can make the walk over there in those?” Kaito asked, eyeing the shoes, while Shuichi was looking at the rest of Kaede’s outfit and hoping she hadn’t painted an even larger target on her back than normal.

The dress was adorable, he would be the first to admit to that, but he felt like it was something that should have been worn somewhere a bit more private, not out to a club in a strange town. The top fit her just like any of her shirts did, squeezing the chest that she had and making it stand out amongst the rest of her curves, all of which were being accentuated in the little pink dress. Its skirt ended far too soon, making her short legs look longer at the cost of almost her entire thigh being exposed on both legs, something she didn’t even seem bothered by. “I can handle it, don’t worry,” she replied, grabbing her purse and tucking it over her shoulder, finishing her outfit strong. “If anyone tries attacking me, they make for a great weapon.”

“What would Rantaro think if he was here?” Shuichi’s question was genuine, but the way that Kaede reacted by gasping and looking at herself in the mirror was not expected. “Do you think he’d like seeing you like this?”

“He knew this was what I planned on doing and didn’t complain about it then, I don’t see why he wouldn’t like seeing me like this. In fact…I’m sure he’s a bit bummed he can’t see me like this!” Turning both hands into fists, which she pumped excitedly, Kaede took a second to marvel at her reflection before fishing her phone out of her purse and asking one of them to take her picture for the explicit purpose of sending to her boyfriend. Kaito did the honors, while Shuichi shook his head, enjoying the concept of going to the club even less than he’d already enjoyed it.

Once the picture was taken and sent, they were set to leave the room, but Kaito had one last thing he felt he needed to do before leaving. “Gotta take my jacket with me, just in case they’ll let me in with it,” he explained, picking up the destroyed article of clothing and slinging it over his shoulder. “It was part of my original outfit idea in the first place, it’s gotta make the trip with me now.”

Exchanging a look between them, both Kaede and Shuichi knew that Kaito was aware it wasn’t going to be allowed into the club, especially since he’d been the one reading the dress code when they’d first seen the club. “I mean, if that’s what you want,” she said, while Shuichi tried to grab the jacket to leave it behind, to no avail. “Come on, let’s go get something to eat before we head over, just so we’re not gorging ourselves on expensive club food later.”

“You’re always thinking of making sure we’re fed, aren’t you?” Shuichi asked her with a laugh, giving a second attempt at grabbing Kaito’s jacket but missing it by an arm’s length. She shrugged and merely reminded them that they needed to eat, and he wasn’t going to argue with that.

Their ride down to the lobby was in an otherwise empty elevator, which meant they were able to see their reflections in the door and admire them. Next to Kaede, they both looked incredibly underdressed, but it wouldn’t have been quite as bad if that jacket hadn’t been on Kaito’s shoulder, but he seemed to not even notice that his choice in attire was diminishing their chances at actually looking good. As they walked through the lobby and towards the casino there were many people giving them looks, a couple whistles and cat-calls, and not a single one of them seemed to faze Kaede, although her male companions were both beginning to wonder if letting her get so fancy would be their downfall.

If her looking so nice was a problem, it was one that they quickly forgot about when she was able to sweet-talk her way into a table much quicker than the wait time would have made them assume they’d get one, and they were able to score excellent service simply because the server wanted to impress the busty blonde at his table, the fact that she was dining with two guys be damned. “Maybe next time Rantaro and I want to go out, I should look like this,” she told them with a laugh after they’d gotten their food in record time, despite the restaurant being slammed. “It’s doing us all favors, isn’t it?”

“Yeah, but I think the guy’s got the hots for you,” Kaito pointed out, his powers of observation as stellar as always. “He’s only talkin’ to you, and it’s kinda like me and Shuichi aren’t even here. Either he knows we’re not into you, or he doesn’t care.”

“Joke’s on him because I have a boyfriend I love very much.” The smile that Kaede put on at that statement would have been enough to make any man swoon, if they weren’t familiar with her or very much _not_ into women, and as the two people who saw it were dating each other it didn’t have the intended impact. But when she flashed it again later at the server, she was able to get some items knocked off the bill, which she flaunted with pride—until she actually looked at what they were being charged and saw that the discounts had been done because of who she was, not how she looked.

It was enough to sour her attitude for the rest of the time they were at the restaurant, but by the time they were on their way to the club she’d cheered back up and was more than happy to sashay and twirl whenever she had clear space in front of her. “I don’t think Rantaro knows how lucky of a guy he is to have her,” Shuichi remarked, bumping into Kaito’s shoulder to make sure he was listening. “I mean, anyone who has her has got to be pretty lucky, she’s kind of amazing.”

“Well, yeah, she’s amazing, but she’s also your best friend and one of mine, so we’re biased there, don’t ya think?” The way Kaito looked at him with a kind smile made Shuichi’s heart melt slightly, and that expression was coupled with an arm wrapping around him, to hold him tightly. “It’d be like me talkin’ about how lucky I am to have you, because you’re amazing. Which is true, but it doesn’t mean as much when I say it.”

“It means more than enough when you say it.”

“Are you two getting kissy-faced back there already?” Kaede asked, not even looking in their direction as she called them out. Kaito sputtered a response and distanced himself from Shuichi, who sighed and shook his head. “I’m sure there will be plenty of that once we’re in the dark of the club, so save it for then!”

As she went back to her headstrong, leader mode and forgot all about what she’d just broken up behind her, Shuichi mumbled under his breath, “I hope there’s none of that in the club, don’t want anyone else moving in on one of us just because they think we’re all fair game.”

“Don’t worry, Shuichi, I’ll make sure that no one but me gets their hands on you in there,” Kaito proclaimed, having heard his boyfriend’s reservations even at their distance. “You can count on me to do that for ya!”

The gesture was appreciated, but when Kaito’s entrance into the club wasn’t even guaranteed it was hard to believe it. Sure enough, when they got in line and the bouncer was scouting through everyone to make sure that dress code standards were being adhered to, Kaito was pulled out of line and spoken to about his jacket, which he wasn’t even wearing in that moment. He was given the ultimatum of either throwing the jacket away or taking it back to his room and returning without it, but in true Kaito fashion he argued with the bouncer that he deserved to be allowed to have it with him, even if he wasn’t wearing it. The back-and-forth went on for a while, until Kaede, annoyed with the arguing, stepped in and said that if he wasn’t allowed to even take it inside, that should have been put on the rules in the first place. “He’s not even wearing it, just give the guy a break,” she pointed out, motioning to how the jacket was still over his shoulder. “He’s carrying it in case I get cold later, like a real gentleman does.”

“Ma’am, with all due respect, you expect me to believe that you’d wear a one-sleeved jacket?” the bouncer asked, raising his eyebrows at Kaede, who did not back down and insisted that she would, in fact, do exactly that. “I suppose as long as it is not visible to any patrons while inside, we’ll let it slide. Your VIP status is letting you work with a lot here, miss Akamatsu.”

“Don’t worry, I won’t expect to take advantage of things if I ever come back,” she replied with a sunny, saccharine smile that the bouncer rolled his eyes at before moving on, allowing Kaito to return to his spot in line. “You’re lucky I got the vouchers to get inside because of my talent, because I don’t think that would’ve worked any other way. You owe me one, Kaito.”

“Noted,” he said, clutching his jacket with one hand while the other arm wrapped its way around Shuichi, reminding him that he was physically present and actually being dragged into the club after all. “I’m not gonna let you hold that one over me forever though, you can count on that!”

“I was thinking maybe giving me some gambling money tomorrow to settle everything, but then I remembered you don’t have any of that left, do you?” Taking on a teasing tone, Kaede was hitting right where Kaito was weakest, but when he proclaimed that he still had most of the money he’d brought with him, she was predictably surprised. “Oh, well in that case, you give me some and then we’re even.”

“You’ve got yourself a deal!” The way he pulled Shuichi in closer to him as he accepted Kaede’s offer must not have been intentional, but Shuichi was not one to complain about getting unexpected contact with his boyfriend’s muscular chest.

At nine o’clock sharp the door to the club opened, and those who’d been queueing were allowed to enter, with the VIPs given entry first. That meant that the trio were three of the first people inside the darkened room, escorted to their own table that was already covered in bottles of different liquors and mixers for their consumption. “Don’t worry about a tab,” the usher told them as they took their seats, “it’s already taken care of with your passes. Just wave if you would like anything specific or refills, we will be glad to take care of you.”

“Well, you heard the woman,” Kaede said as she reached under the table to loosen up the straps on her heels, which had predictably started to cause her feet to ache from their height and the walking. “Drink to your heart’s delight, this is on me, except it’s not on me so much as it is the company that gave me this trip!”

It was too dark to see what the specifics of the drinks were, but once the club started filling more and live music was beginning to play on the stage, bringing with it strobing lights that lit the room, they were able to see what they were working with. Everything there was high-end, top-shelf alcohol that would have cost anyone a fortune to buy, and they were given several different bottles of it to mix as they pleased. “Hey, this setup’s pretty sweet,” Kaito remarked as he cracked open one of the bottles, not paying too much attention to what it was. “Can’t complain when it’s all free, too! This night’s gonna be fantastic!”

Shuichi wasn’t much of a drinker, and Kaede was even less of one, but Kaito could certainly slam drinks down with the best of them and not be too bad off for it. The consequence of him drinking, though, was that he drank best when he had a partner to do it with, and because one of the two he was with didn’t drink unless it was the most special of occasions, that meant that Shuichi had to bite the bullet and indulge with his boyfriend. On one hand, it made for the night to become interesting, loosening up the man who’d been so insistent they not go to the club, but on the other, it left Kaede sitting with them completely sober while they were beginning to get much more physically affectionate than they ever got. By the time midnight rolled around she’d gotten up to dance with strangers a few times, turned down many drinks as she was offered by her dance partners, and come back to the table to see the two nearly on top of each other, once or twice finding them in the middle of a kiss she didn’t want to break up.

When they were apart, they both had flushed faces and mussed clothes, one of them wearing his alcohol a lot worse than the other was, and when the first sign that they were getting a _bit_ too drunk hit Kaede decided it would be best for them to just head back to their room. They’d had their fun in public, and she wasn’t going to let her friends make any decisions they wouldn’t have if they were of sound mind, so she laced her shoes back up, made sure Kaito had his jacket back in his possession, and walked the two of them out the door, seeing a long line outside waiting for entry. “Oh hey, could we go back in?” Shuichi asked, his words coherent enough even though he was visibly dazed. “I think we left Kaito’s…uh…”

“Jacket? No, he’s got it.” Kaede even double-checked to make sure that the one-sleeved jacket was on Kaito’s shoulder, only to find that he’d decided to properly wear it. “Yeah, okay, he’s definitely got it. Now let’s get back, before either of you decide you want to do something stupid because you took too much advantage of the free drinks.”

Walking them back to the hotel room was much like herding cats, or trying to keep a pair of bubbly teenage girls in line. As they crossed one of the outdoor bridges, Kaito stopped halfway across, rushing to the fence that lined the side and looking out over the still-busy street. “Look at all these…cars,” he said, sticking his hand through the grating to try and reach cars he was way too high above to even think about touching. “I wish I could be in one of those. Walkin’ sucks right now.”

“You’re telling me,” Kaede agreed, humoring him by coming to stand next to him, looking at the same vehicles as they blew past underneath. “I’m the one in stilettos, I’m the one that should be complaining about walking.”

Behind them, Shuichi had taken to looking off the bridge from the other side, seeing a small number of the city lights from where he was looking. The lights reminded him of stars, which reminded him of stargazing, which reminded him of all the date nights he’d had with Kaito over the years they’d been together. He may have been pretty smart, but he couldn’t tell anyone anything about stars that wouldn’t be immediately overshadowed by Kaito’s encyclopedic knowledge of the cosmos, and he was fairly certain he wasn’t looking at any actual stars at all.

“This is the best night ever!” Kaito exclaimed, pulling his arm back and throwing them both into the air, right as a gust of wind caused by the cars below blew at him and Kaede, catching his jacket and pulling it off of his arms. The exclamation had been enough to get Shuichi to turn around to see what was going on, and he saw the jacket attempting to make its escape, but he also saw Kaede with cat-like reflexes reach over and snatch it before it could blow away, at the expense of one of her ankles buckling and causing her to fall into Kaito, throwing both of them to the ground.

Rather than anger at being knocked over, Kaito expressed nothing but appreciation for his jacket being saved, and he soon picked himself back up, but getting Kaede to her feet was a different story. By the time she was standing, her ankle was visibly swelling and she was trying her best not to cry in pain, which meant that the rest of the walk back was done slowly, with the sober one needing to be carried by her impaired companions.

They all slept amazing that night, and in the morning it was decided that it would just be a “chill by the swimming pool” kind of day, seeing as Kaede could barely walk without wanting to cry and neither of the guys wanted to admit to how hungover they were. She’d given them a tired smile when they’d woken up, her foot propped up on the bed with makeup-stained pillows underneath it, and explained her plan for the day, while they both tried to recall what had happened, why they felt so miserable, why Kaito felt like he’d been smashed by something physically, and why his jacket was hanging on the television screen, with a note attached saying _do NOT wear this again, thanks._

**Author's Note:**

> for my one foray into writing for saimota week, I decided to write a fun trip to totally-not-vegas that goes completely, utterly wrong in moments. damn it kaito and your silly jacket


End file.
